Tom McMahon

"The Nature of the Firm" is a brief essay in which Ronald Coase tries to explain why the economy is populated by a number of business firms, instead of consisting exclusively of a multitude of independent, self-employed people who contract with one another. Given that "production could be carried on without any organization [i.e. firms] at all", Coase asks, why and under what conditions should we expect firms to emerge?

This 1937 article was soooo far ahead of everyone else that he didn't win the Nobel Prize for Economics for it until 1991. It's become an overused term, but this guy was a true genius. 

 

You'll get to browse past entries by category (yes, I've categorized all 1200-plus previous entries), add your comments to certain selected entries, and trackbackers can trackback.

I always thought blogging about blogging was boring. Ya know, I was right. 

I'm working on some design changes that you'll see over the next couple of days. For my fellow geeks, I'm making the transition from BlogSpot to TypePad. Posting will be lighter for the next couple of days. But have no fear, I'll be back in full force by Monday (I know my audience!) 

Their Product Showcase has a handy table. For each game they sell it shows

• Age
• Number of Players
• Minutes to Learn
• Minutes to Play

The kids have been having fun with BLINK 

The Inglehart Values Map visualizes the strong correlation of values in different cultures. Countries are clustered in a remarkably predictable way. From the World Values Survey 

According to this NIH table (International Range of Incidence for Selected Sites of Cancer Around 1985, Females), the San Francisco Bay Area has the highest incidence of breast cancer in the world. 

New Scientist: "Early in 2005, champion skydiver Cheryl Stearns will make the highest free-fall jump in history from the edge of space. The StratoQuest mission's aim is to test new equipment that may enable astronauts to bail out of a stricken shuttle. It is badly needed research, as the Columbia disaster has shown." 

Make toys at home with common household materials, often in only a few minutes, that demonstrate fascinating scientific principles. (via del.icio.us) 

1. Intention
2. Accountability
3. Identification
4. Centrality
5. Recasting
6. Options
7. Appreciation
8. Giving
9. Truthfulness

Intention - the active desire & commitment to be happy, and the fully conscious decision to choose happiness over unhappiness.
Accountability - the choice to create the life you want to live, to assume full personal responsibility for your actions, thoughts, & feelings, and the emphatic refusal to blame others for your own unhappiness.
Identification - the ongoing process of looking deeply within yourself to assess what makes you uniquely happy, apart from what you're told by others should make you happy.
Centrality - the nonnegotiable insistence on making that which creates happiness central in your life.
Recasting - the choice to convert problems into opportunities & challenges and to transform trauma into something meaningful, important, & a source of emotional energy.
Options - the decision to approach life be creating multiple scenarios, to be open to new possibilities and to adopt a flexible approach to life's journey.
Appreciation - the choise to appreciate deeply your life and the people in it and to stay in the present by turning each new experience into something precious.
Giving - the choice to share yourself with friends and the world at large without the expectation of a "return".
Truthfulness - the choice to be honest with yourself and others in an accountable manner by not allowing societal, corporate, or family demands to violate your internal contract.

From the book How We Choose To Be Happy 

A step-by-step guide to removing them from your home. 

1. Living Consciously
2. Self-Acceptance
3. Self-Responsibility
4. Self-Assertiveness
5. Living Purposefully
6. Personal Integrity
----------------------------------
1. Living Consciously:
Respect for facts; being present to what we are doing while we are doing it; seeking and being eagerly open to any information, knowledge, or feedback that bears on our interests, values, goals, and projects; seeking to understand not only the world external to self but also our inner world as well, so that we do not act out of self-blindness.
2. Self-acceptance:
The willingness to own, experience, and take responsibility for our thoughts, feelings, and actions, without evasion, denial, or disowning -- and also without self-repudiation; giving oneself permission to think one's thoughts, experience one's emotions, and look at one's actions without necessarily liking, endorsing or condoning them. If we are self-accepting, we do not experience ourselves as always "on trial," and what this leads to is non-defensiveness and willingness to hear critical feedback or different ideas without becoming hostile and adversarial.
3. Self-responsibility:
Realizing that we are the authors of our choices and actions; that each one of us is responsible for our life and well-being and for the attainment of our goals; that if we need the cooperation of other people to achieve our goals, we must offer values in exchange; and that the question is not "Who's to blame?" but always "What needs to be done?"
4. Self-assertiveness:
Being authentic in our dealings with others; treating our values and persons with decent respect in social contexts; refusing to fake the reality of who we are or what we esteem in order to avoid someone's disapproval; the willingness to stand up for ourselves and our ideas in appropriate ways in appropriate circumstances.
5. Living purposefully:
Identifying our short-term and long-term goals or purposes and the actions needed to attain them, organizing behavior in the service of those goals, monitoring action to be sure we stay on track -- and paying attention to outcome so as to recognize if and when we need to go back to the drawing-board.
6. Personal integrity:
Living with congruence between what we know, what we profess, and what we do; telling the truth, honoring our commitments, exemplifying in action the values we professes to admire; dealing with others fairly and benevolently.

From the article What Self-Esteem Is and Is Not , by Nathaniel Branden 

Oh Lydia, oh Lydia, say, have you met Lydia?
Lydia The Tattooed Lady.
She has eyes that folks adore so,
and a torso even more so.
Lydia, oh Lydia, that encyclo-pidia.
Oh Lydia The Queen of Tattoo.
On her back is The Battle of Waterloo.
Beside it, The Wreck of the Hesperus too.
And proudly above waves the red, white, and blue.
You can learn a lot from Lydia!

La-la-la...la-la-la.
La-la-la...la-la-la.

When her robe is unfurled she will show you the world,
if you step up and tell her where.
For a dime you can see Kankakee or Paree,
or Washington crossing The Delaware.

La-la-la...la-la-la.
La-la-la...la-la-la.

Oh Lydia, oh Lydia, say, have you met Lydia?
Lydia The Tattooed Lady.
When her muscles start relaxin',
up the hill comes Andrew Jackson.
Lydia, oh Lydia, that encyclo-pidia.
Oh Lydia The Queen of them all.
For two bits she will do a mazurka in jazz,
with a view of Niagara that nobody has.
And on a clear day you can see Alcatraz.
You can learn a lot from Lydia!

La-la-la...la-la-la.
La-la-la...la-la-la.

Come along and see Buffalo Bill with his lasso.
Just a little classic by Mendel Picasso.
Here is Captain Spaulding exploring the Amazon.
Here's Godiva, but with her pajamas on.

La-la-la...la-la-la.
La-la-la...la-la-la.

Here is Grover Whelan unveilin' The Trilon.
Over on the west coast we have Treasure Isle-on.
Here's Nijinsky a-doin' the rhumba.
Here's her social security numba.

La-la-la...la-la-la.
La-la-la...la-la-la.

Lydia, oh Lydia, that encyclo-pidia.
Oh Lydia The Champ of them all.
She once swept an Admiral clear off his feet.
The ships on her hips made his heart skip a beat.
And now the old boy's in command of the fleet,
for he went and married Lydia!

I said Lydia...
(He said Lydia...)
They said Lydia...
We said Lydia, la, la!

 

Four brothers left home for college, and they became successful doctors and lawyers and prospered. Some years later, they chatted after having dinner together. They discussed the gifts that they were able to give to their elderly mother who lived far away in another city.

The first said, "I had a big house built for Mama."

The second said, "I had a hundred thousand dollar theater built in the house."

The third said, "I had my Mercedes dealer deliver her an SL600."

The fourth said, "Listen to this. You know how Mama loved reading the Bible and you know she can't read it anymore because she can't see very well. I met this priest who told me about a parrot that can recite the entire Bible. It took twenty priests 12 years to teach him. I had to pledge to contribute $100,000 a year for twenty years to the church, but it was worth it. Mama just has to name the chapter and verse and the parrot will recite it." The other brothers were impressed.

After the holidays Mom sent out her Thank You notes.

She wrote: "Milton, the house you built is so huge. I live in only one room, but I have to clean the whole house. Thanks anyway."

"Marvin, I am too old to travel. I stay home, I have my groceries delivered, so I never use the Mercedes. The thought was good. Thanks."

"Michael, you give me an expensive theater with Dolby sound, it could hold 50 people, but all my friends are dead, I've lost my hearing and I'm nearly blind. I'll never use it. Thank you for the gesture just the same."

"Dearest Melvin, you were the only son to have the good sense to give a little thought to your gift.

The chicken was delicious. Thank you."

(via Dan Pittenger and Jim Kohli) 

As a senior presidential adviser, Karen Hughes shaped George W. Bush's agenda, policy and communications--she even co-wrote his autobiography. Since leaving the White House, she's written a book of her own: "10 Minutes From Normal," out this spring.

What's the meaning of the title?

[In 2000] we left the chaos and hyperactivity of the [Republican National] Convention and got on a train. As we came into this little town in Illinois, the conductor announced, "Ladies and gentlemen, we are 10 minutes from Normal; 10 minutes from Normal." And I turned to a friend and said, "If I ever write a book, that's the title, because that's exactly how I feel about this whole bizarre experience."

 

By John Carlson Some examples:

Democrats let their kids open all the gifts on Christmas Eve.

Republicans make their kids wait until Christmas morning

Democrats get back at Republicans on their Christmas list by giving them fruitcakes.

Republicans re-wrap them and send them to in-laws.

 

For the latest maneuvers of the new oligopolies and what they mean, you need oligopolywatch. On ther other hand, the aim of the Hierarchies Project is to track the relationships among corporations, their brands, and the effects these structures have on the world. 

From NFL.com:

Around 1970 at the campus of UCLA, a young Dick Vermeil -- then the offensive coordinator -- worked with then-head coach Tommy Prothro on devising a chart to determine when to attempt a two-point conversion. Every now and then when you're watching a game on TV, the announcers might refer to "the chart" which most head coaches have in their back pocket in case they need help figuring out when they should "go for two."

Of course, coaches also have to determine when it's the best time to go for the conversion instead of the extra point. For example, let's say you're coaching and your team is losing 22-0 but they score a touchdown, cutting your deficit to 16. Do you go for two to make it a 14-point game? It's not an easy choice -- especially if it's in the first half or early in the second half. Truth be told, it's not always easy to know when to attempt a two-point conversion.

Just in case you ever need it, here it is -- a version of Prothro and Vermeil's two-point chart.

 

From thisistheusfl.com:

The smallest check ever written by the National Football League has been fondled, copied and photographed - but never cashed. The check was sent to the disbanded United States Football League 10 years ago to settle a make - or - break $1.69 billion antitrust case. It's cash value is $3.76, representing a $1 damage award, trebled to $3, plus 76 cents in interest. . . .

 

My Grandfather and The Lone Ranger. Be sure to drink your milk!

 

David Frum on Conrad Black's FDR:

Black has been criticized for lavishing the reader with too many details. Speaking for myself, I enjoyed the details: I loved learning, for example, that the Nazi central banker Haljmar Schacht was the son of a man who had briefly moved to the United States, became a follower of Horace Greeley’s in the 1872 presidential election – and that as a result, the full christened name of the future director of the German war economy was Horace Greeley Haljmar Schacht.

 

Gene Weingarten in the Washington Post:

Determined as I am to combat the Culture of Negativity and Name-Calling that seems to have pervaded Washington, I decided to invite an arch-liberal and an arch-conservative to meet in this column and constructively discuss their differences, with me as moderator. I wanted the liberal to be Al Franken, the author of the best-selling Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them, and the conservative to be Ann Coulter, author of the best-selling Traitor: Liberal Treachery From the Cold War to the War on Terrorism. Ann agreed right away. But Al begged off, saying he was too "busy," even for a worthy cause like helping combat the plague of name-calling. What a milksoppy, pantywaist, jellyfish, weasel-out wuss he turned out to be.

 

"The innovative new "Money Machine" from Unique Novelties is the exciting, interactive and fun way to give and receive money for any occasion! No more putting money in a boring old envelope to give as a gift. The patent pending Money Machine™ is specially designed and perfect for inserting and dispensing any amount or combination of currency, coupons and gift certificates. In just a few easy steps you can give a gift they will always remember. Simply link together and roll up your currency, coupons and gift certificates end-to-end using the Scotch™ Brand Removable Tape included, attach the pull-tab and you're ready to roll out the fun. Even a series of ten one's will make them feel like a millionaire!" 

. . . and how they prove the Earth rotates. Lots of great illustrations. 

"Most investors welcome tender offers because they frequently provide a rare opportunity to sell securities at a premium above market price. But investors should know that not all tender offers are alike.

"Mini-tender" offers – tender offers for less than five percent of a company's stock – have been increasingly used to catch investors off guard. Many investors who hear about mini-tender offers surrender their securities without investigating the offer, assuming that the price offered includes the premium usually present in larger, traditional tender offers. But they later learn that they cannot withdraw from the offer and may end up selling their securities at below-market prices. . . . "